


Apogee,  Perigee

by fragrantwoods



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, M/M, Porn With Plot, Romantic Angst, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:32:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragrantwoods/pseuds/fragrantwoods
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saul had never seen "that" put up in a Triad game before...but he'd win it, for Bill. An unexpected but very welcome weekend ensues.<br/>Takes place AU, initially, while Saul and Bill are in the merchant fleet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apogee,  Perigee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Plaid_Slytherin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/gifts).



It wasn’t the oddest thing he’d seen put in the pot at a Triad game. But it was pretty frakking odd. Saul gave the other man a suspicious glare.

“How’re we supposed to know what that’s worth? Go on your say-so?” His Triad face showed a trace of sneer around his mouth.

“Look at the brochures, man. The rates are right there.” The well-to-do mark had put his pinky ring and his cashmere coat in the pot already. Saul had surreptitiously checked when the mark wasn’t looking (which was pretty often, Triad obviously not being this jerk’s game) and it was Bill’s size. The expensive wool would look beautiful over Bill’s broad shoulders. It was only a few shades different from the duty blues Fleet officers wore.

_Bill would like that._

He looked down at the glossy brochure the man, now sweating a bit, had shoved into his hands. _Luxury cabin set in the beautiful Scorpia highlands, sweeping panoramic views from front and back deck, hot tub, vid system, all the privacy and deluxe accouterments a couple could ask for. Weekend rate: $500 cubits. Includes all applicable taxes._

Saul shrugged. He didn’t want the mark to leave before he won that coat. “Fine. Put it in the pot.” He handed the mark a stack of chips.

An hour later, Saul was giving the luxurious blue coat a final whisking, bringing up the velvety nap perfectly. The brochure was in his pocket.

Bill was right…he did do better when he wasn’t drinking.

 

******************************

 

The pinky ring proved to be enough to buy them passage to Scorpia. Bill had shaken his head at first—he wasn’t the swanky, luxurious type, he’d argued—but Saul had silenced him with a long and luscious kiss. The cashmere was soft against Saul’s face when they broke apart and he laid his cheek on Bill’s shoulder. The color went with his eyes, making them go a deeper blue.

He’d already caught Bill checking himself out in the mirror, lapels turned up in an attempt to mimic duty blues. He’d blushed when Saul had hugged him from behind, whispering a soft _You’ll get back there some day. We both will_ in his ear.

Their luggage was the most battered on the leisure transport heading for Scorpia. Saul barely noticed. He had three days, two nights, with his lover, miles away from grimy freighters and greasy machinery. Clean sheets, outdoor hot tub, a refrigerator stocked with the basics plus a few fancier things (but no booze; he’d asked that alcohol be cleared out, his mouth speaking while his brain was still questioning that decision).

It sounded heavenly. And the look in Bill’s eyes, clear blue flame when he raked his gaze over Saul, told him Bill felt the same way.

As did the hand Bill slipped up his thigh, fingers lightly rubbing against the bulk behind Saul’s zipper. Even with the small duffel bag and magazine Saul had in his lap as cover, he suspected anyone interested enough to look would peg them as lovers, maybe honeymooners, not quite able to wait for full privacy.

 

********************************

 

As the cab practically met itself around some of the twistier turns up the highland road, which climbed a lot steeper than Saul liked, all thoughts of playful gropes were forgotten as both held on to grab bars, swaying with the turns. If he, or Bill had been at the controls, it would’ve been fine.But they weren’t.

Bill rode the swerves with the grace of the pilot he used to be, back straight and loose, eyes taking in their surroundings. He was able to make do with one white-knuckled hand on the grab bar. The other was folded around Saul’s hand, thumb rubbing against the skin until Saul felt himself beginning to relax.

When Bill shifted closer and put an arm around him, pulling him close, Saul finally relaxed enough to watch the scenery. White clouds obscured the top of some of the mountain peaks, but down below them, the jungle valley was lush and full of color. When a bright emerald and coral-feathered bird watched them pass from a fencepost along the road, he could actually appreciate the elegant plumes and ignore the drop past the guard rail.

Things were looking better and better.

 

******************

Neither of them spoke as they watched the cabbie drive away, their duffels on the porch. The silence was total, other than a few rustles and birdsong. The snug chalet was made from wood that glowed golden in the afternoon sun. A few steps brought them to the back deck, a simple structure made unique by a huge mahogany tree growing up through an opening in the center of the deck. The branches looked sturdy, and thoughts of the positions they might support had him hardening again.

Bill had swung over the latched deck gate ( _show-off_ , Saul thought with an indulgent smile) and was checking out the hot tub. “One hundred and one degrees,” he called, obviously pleased with the reading on the controls. That sounded awfully hot to Saul, but his Tauron lover had always run a little hotter than anyone he’d ever known.

He tossed the keys over the railing for Bill to catch. “Here. Open that door. I’m fine with going in the back way.” He reached over to unlock the gate his exuberant lover hadn’t bothered to open. Bill caught his hand, his grin showing off his white teeth under his moustache.

“I love it when you talk dirty.”

Bill’s words sent a bolt of heat right to his crotch. _This is going to be frakkin’ awesome._

The heat between them ratcheted up as they explored the lovers’ hideaway. The wide bed was festooned with pillows of various shapes and sizes, and Saul could imagine one of them under Bill’s hips, holding him higher and wider as Saul licked and sucked. Others were sturdy and cylindrical, just right to go under a partner’s belly and angle his or her ass to the perfect position for a long, slow frak.

“I could bend you over these without either of us having to get out of bed,” Bill said, eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled.

Saul took Bill’s coat and went to hang it up, then stopped.

“But then we’d miss this,” Saul said, looking into the closet closest to the deck door.

Before him was a neatly arranged set of nylon webbing, with an assortment of hooks and straps folded over it.

“Is that what I think it is?” Bill asked, looking at the item with curiosity.

Saul picked up the typed instructions next to the pile of nylon. A sketch indicated which branch to use, how to adjust the rigging, and a disclaimer about using the sex swing at their own risk.

“Yeah. You ever…?”

Bill looked thoughtful. “Well, there was that time we got tangled up in the rigging beside your rack…”

“I’m pretty sure this is going to be a lot better than that.”

Pillows forgotten for the time being, both men worked on hanging the sex swing until it was suspended like a nylon nest before them, swaying from the thick mahogany branch, beckoning them to settle in for the ride.

Saul raked his gaze carefully around the surroundings. Nothing but trees and the edges of the rainforest were visible, the sound of birds still the only thing breaking the silence. They could have been the last people of earth. They could do anything they wanted here…the place was practically begging them to let loose, go wild.

He stepped closer to Bill, slipping the buttons of his shirt free and running his thumbs across the dusky bronze nipples, so tight and flat. Bill returned the favor, and for a few mind-blowing seconds, they reveled in the freedom to be out in the open air, kissing and nipping each other, taking their time to play at a more leisurely pace than usual.

Saul was groaning, stroking his fingers gently against Bill’s ribs one by one, down to his belly as Bill sucked against his neck, then his collarbone.

_This is more than hot. This is frakkin’ romantic._

They finally broke apart, both breathing hard in the cooling air. They were still half-clothed, still on their feet…and suddenly that seemed like a terrible waste. A heartbeat passed, then another. He meant to say _who’s going first?_ or _Should we eat before or after we frak?_

Then the words “I love you” were coming out of his mouth, and Bill’s thumb was running over his lips, their eyes locked as Bill whispered “Love you, too.”

They stood there, Saul nuzzling his lips against the side of Bill’s neck. Neither noticed the small clouds moving in high overhead.

 

**********************************

 

Dinner was a plate of sliced meats and cheeses, some whole-wheat crackers and soft cider to wash it down. A bowl of strawberries and whipped cream waited in the fridge still, a little clichéd but still looking tasty. The sky had darkened in the twenty minutes it had taken them to put the simple repast together. Neither had wanted to take time to fix a big meal, but Bill’s stomach had growled while Saul was kissing him there…and they did have all weekend.

Somewhere in the eating and feeding each other, both men had slipped out of their clothes, and they moved and touched each other easily in their bare skin. The space, the freedom, the absence of any reminders of chores or duties created a heady vibe. Saul wondered if this was what successful married people felt like all the time.

He was down on his knees in front of Bill, giving his stiff cock slow, twisting licks, when Bill threaded his fingers through Saul’s ginger hair and tugged until he got up.

“We can do that anywhere, Saul. Let’s go try out the special amenities.”

Saul gave him a last hard suck, loosening Bill’s knees for a second, then got up. He went into the bedroom, eyeing the nightstand. _Surely with the hot tub and everything…_

He found what he was looking for as soon as he opened the drawer. His budget had never allowed for experimenting with the higher priced silicone lube. Plain oil, maybe an occasional tube of discount _Satyr’s Eze_ had always been good enough for them, augmented with their own fluids.

But here was an assortment of high-dollar lubes made for long sessions in water (or just long sessions, period). He could feel himself twitching as his imagination ran away with him for a second. Him on Bill’s cock, frakking in the hot tub until water was everywhere, the water making them almost weightless…or Bill, on his knees, his broad back just breaking the surface as Saul pumped deep into him.

So many ways.

In the end, it was Saul, lifted in Bill’s arms and held until he was settled in place, who tried out the swing first. Initially, it was almost scary, and Saul kept an eye on the branch as it took his full weight. The hooks that had been driven into the tree looked like they’d been there a while, though, like they could hold on through whatever he and Bill came up with. And they were coming up with a _lot._

One adjustment was made, and Saul’s mouth was at the perfect height to take Bill deep in his mouth. There was enough support so Saul could reach down, cupping his balls and rolling them gently together. They’d opened the first bottle ( _Danger Zone Viper Oil_ ) and Saul glided over and over Bill’s tight opening as he sucked, finally slipping a finger deep inside. The throbbing between his lips signaled him to move on to other activities if he wanted this to last for both of them. Bill was hanging onto the rigging, groaning, begging for more.

Saul had more.

He reassured Bill he had plenty more, as he shifted in the swing and rested his feet in the strapping, knees raised. Now it was Bill’s turn to suck and probe, deep-throating Saul until he thought he’d come right there.

The faintest, tiniest raindrop fell onto Saul’s heated skin, almost too small to be felt. Then another came. The leaves rustled high overhead. Each drop felt like an electrical spark to his sensitive nerve endings. And Bill…

Bill was looming over him, hips level with the end of the swing. The beginning rain, warm and just barely there, had been enough to make Bill’s longish hair begin to curl. He looked like he belonged here, like he belonged in the Highlands, wild, uncivilized. The dampness added a sheen to his muscles.

Saul felt his arms being guided back, Bill bending, arranging him the way he wanted. Even with the threatening rain, he took time to run his lips down the under-curve of Saul’s arms, nosing into the fine ginger hair he found there. Their speech had turned into monosyllabic bites.

_Do that._

_Yes, good._

_There._

_More._

_Don’t stop._

And then there weren’t any words at all, just grunts and gasps, low moans guiding their movements.

Saul’s legs were shaking by the time Bill oozed out a satisfactory amount of lube. Hand and fingers coated, Bill pumped his cock a few times, then pulled the swing towards him. Helpless, weightless, Saul felt his body impale itself on the two slippery fingers Bill had waiting for him.

“Oh, gods, Bill, yeah…”

The swing moved back, Bill standing still as a statue, letting his fingers slip out of Saul’s ass.

Saul groaned in frustration, then groaned again as Bill rocked the swing forward, his fingers tantalizing against his ring until another slight movement slid the fingers deep inside again.

Saul put his head back and looked up at the stars winking through the clouds. His head was spinning, his movement uncontrolled, at least by him. Bill’s fingers rasped over his prostate and his cock jumped, a bead of pre-cum flowing from the head.

“Bill, I can’t wait—” he gasped.

“Won’t have to.” Bill bent to kiss him, sucking hard on his bottom lip, then stood between his upraised knees. Saul could just see him from this angle, fisting his cock, spreading the lube.

For the first time since they’d been frakking, he felt a ping of nervousness. Bill would be controlling the speed, the depth…Saul wouldn’t be able to do anything in this position, other than take it.

His cock pulsed, then beaded again as the mental image played out. Their eyes met again, Bill asking for Saul’s trust, Saul asking for his careful touch. The heat leapt between them as each found what they were looking for.

“I’m ready, Bill.”

Bill eased his fingers in and out a couple more times. “Yeah, I’d say you are,” he said, removing them with a twist.

Most times, normal times, Saul would brace himself, working together with Bill as they found the best way to frak in whatever position they found themselves in.

This was different. There was nothing to brace against. There was cool, damp air between his thighs, then there was the rock-hard head of Bill Adama’s cock, poised at his entrance. The swing moved back a few centimeters, then Bill brought it forward, and Saul didn’t think he’d get it in, he couldn’t lift against him, help him…

And then the length of his lover’s cock was seated inside his tight, waiting heat, Bill pulling the swing closer until he was fully impaled. When the world stopped spinning, Saul could see Bill’s thighs cording with the strain of holding position.

“Sweet Artemis,” he groaned. “Again.”

They established a rhythm together, slow and languid, enjoying the slow stretch, the faint burn. They had never gone at it this slowly before, spent so much time on one frak. Twice Bill had to stop, buried deep inside Saul and trembling over his body, fighting for control. The friction of just these touches was maddening, and when Bill began to stroke his cock in earnest, Saul thought he’d explode right then, shooting pearly come into the sky. Then Bill gripped the base of his cock hard, and the feeling ebbed, then built again.

A soft rain was pattering down on both men as the apogee and perigee of the swing drove Bill’s cock into his lover over and over. Saul came first, thighs shaking and a wordless roar escaping his lips. As his ass clamped down tight, he could feel the first pumps begin, and then it was Bill screaming into the night as he gathered Saul tight against him, fingers marking the backs of his knees.

A sharp thunderclap sounded overhead, the universe echoing their cries.

 

********************

 

By the end of the weekend, Saul wondered if he would need to leave some extra cubits for the lube they’d used.

Every inch of his body seemed to be throbbing, aftershocks from the lovemaking that had gone on and on, ignoring the fact they were both close to thirty. They’d gone back out on the deck again that first night, intending to soak in the hot tub under the canvas awning.

They hadn’t made it past the rainproof mats laid out on the deck. Not so exotic as the fancy swing, but Bill’s ass had been sweet and tight as he knelt on hands and knees, shivering in the soft needling rain as Saul spread him open and frakked him until they collapsed, exhausted, hands clasped tightly together after they came.

Around midnight, the rain had stopped, and a second wind brought them back to the hot tub, too satiated to do anything but snuggle and kiss, cuddled up while the foaming jets caressed their frakked-out bodies.

Time ceased to have any meaning at all, other than the departure time, the scheduled cab ride back down out of the Highlands. The weekend was a blur of strawberries and cream, whispered secrets neither thought they’d ever share, firm pillows, soft snores as they drifted off to sleep whenever tiredness took them.

_I want to spend the rest of my life with this man._

The contraindications were there…the almost-duty-blue coat he saw in the closet when they put up the swing, Saul trying to ignore the wistfulness in Bill’s eyes.

The way he’d catch Bill looking up at the night sky, his stare so intent it was like he could see a Battlestar with his name on it.

The bliss seeped away as they drove back down out of the Highlands.

They didn’t talk much on the trip back, their exertions catching up with them.

And then there was the letter, waiting in the mailbox at Bill’s flat. The Fleet letter.

The one that changed everything.

They drifted apart, despite promises. Saul never threw away the brochure, though. Not even when he was all but living out of his duffel bag.

And somehow, creased and liquor-stained, it found its way into his gear when he walked onto _Galactica’s_ hangar deck.

******************************************

Months later, hands shaking from cutting back on the booze, and from the fatigue of jumping every thirty-three minutes, he found it again as he rummaged in his drawer for some aspirin.

_Luxury cabin set in the beautiful Scorpia highlands, sweeping panoramic views from front and back deck, hot tub, vid system, all the privacy and deluxe accouterments a couple could ask for._

He reckoned it’d all be ashes now, and the thought made him hurt deep in his heart, more than his childhood home, more than the fields he’d tilled as a boy.

“Whatcha got there, XO?” Bill walked through the hatch and closed it behind him. He had circles under his eyes and he hadn’t shaved in days, but for a minute, Saul could see who he’d been—who they _both_ had been that weekend.

He smoothed out the wrinkles of the no longer glossy brochure. “Remember that place we went, that weekend I won in a Triad game?”

A bit of the old sparkle made it past the exhaustion. “Yeah, I do. I always thought…” he sighed. “Everything changed after that, didn’t it? I should have done things different, waited for you—“

“Shh, Bill, you’re worn out.” He pulled him into a hug, patting his back, then stroking the duty blue wool with slow hands.

“Saul, I think that was the happiest weekend of my life, up there with you.” He ran a finger over the faded lettering.

“Yeah. Me, too.” He watched Bill’s eyes, the regret, the love battling there.

“All gone. It still hits me in the gut, so hard to believe, but…everything’s gone.” He closed his eyes,looking too tired to suck it up, to be the cool Commander for just this minute. The years fell away and it was Bill, the one who’d always had his heart, even when life and duty and booze got in the way.

“Not everything.” Saul leaned in for a kiss as deep and sweet as when they were young men. “We’re still here.”

They stood there in Saul’s quarters, swaying against each other, in harmony with the rhythms of a long-ago swing hung from a mahogany tree.

The fragile paper brochure had survived, against all odds. Faded, torn at the edges, wrinkled, but still in one piece.

“Yeah, we are,” Bill said, returning the kiss, and the promise it held.


End file.
